Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilün

Aḳalı eşküm çerisi ceng-içün ṣaḥrālara
Aḳın itdi sū-be-sū ırmaġlar deryālara
Āh u vāy eyler düşelden ol ṣaçı leylīye dil
Uġradan bildüm nedür Mecnūn’ı vā-veylālara
İncinüp iller fiġānumdan üşerler başuma
Nālişümdür uġradan başum benüm ġavġālara
Görinen ḳaşlar mıdur yārā ‘aceb yara didüm
Didi irmez ‘aḳluñ iy miskīn oralara
Fażlī ems̱āline her şā‘ir geçen öykünmesün
‘Aybdur hem-per derilmek zāġlar ‘anḳālara

In English

1. Since the army of my tears flowed to the deserts for battle, the rivers on every side have raided the seas.

2. Since the heart fell for the one whose hair is black as night (like Layla's), it cries alas; I have (now) learned what it was that brought Majnun to lamentation.

3. People, hurt by my wailing, crowd round my head; it is my moaning that brings my head into quarrels.

4. I said, "O beloved, are these eyebrows that appear, or is it perhaps a wound?"; he said, "O wretch, your mind does not reach those places."

5. Let not everyone who passes for a poet imitate the likes of Fazlî; it is shameful for crows to be counted of one wing with the anka.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets, written in the "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün" pattern of the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre). The redif (refrain word) is the suffix "-lara"; Özkat counts this ghazal among those with a suffix as redif. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-ā / -a" in the words "ṣaḥrā, deryā, vā-veylā, ġavġā, ora, ‘anḳā"; since the word "oralara" in the fourth couplet does not carry a long "ā", the rhyme is somewhat loose there. This is our own observation. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the hundred and thirty-fourth in Özkat's edition and is found on fol. 111b of miscellany no. Âşir Efendi 314 in the Süleymaniye Library, in the same place as the ghazal before it. It is not known to whom or when it was written.

This ghazal is written in the same metre, redif and rhyme as ghazal a hundred and thirty-three, which precedes it in the edition; the second lines of the two opening couplets end with the words "sū-be-sū ırmaġlar deryālara", and both ghazals close with the rhyme "‘anḳālara". That the two texts may be two attempts on the same ground or two wordings of the same ghazal is our own inference.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet turns the image of tears from the preceding ghazal into a battle scene. The tears have set out for war like a "çeri" (army), and the rivers have raided the seas. The relation of sound and sense between the verb "aḳmaḳ" (to flow) and the word "aḳın" (raid) is our own observation. In the second couplet the heart has fallen for the beloved whose hair is black as night; the word "leylī" evokes both night and Layla, and the lover now understands the cause of Majnun's lament. In the third couplet the lover's moaning disturbs people and drags him into quarrels. The fourth couplet is built as a dialogue: the lover likens the beloved's eyebrows to a wound and makes a pun (cinas) between the words "yārā" (O beloved) and "yara" (wound); the beloved tells him that his mind will not reach such matters. This pun is our own observation.

The last couplet is the one Özkat quotes in two separate places as an example of Fazlî's sayings on poetry and poets. According to Özkat, the poet here counts it shameful for everyone who passes for a poet to imitate true poets, just as crows cannot be found together with the anka. The anka is, in divan poetry, a fabulous bird believed to live on Mount Kaf, one that has a name but no existence; the crow is the symbol of vulgarity. In the pen-name couplet of the preceding ghazal the poet had said that his talent could teach the anka to fly; in this couplet he uses the same bird to set himself apart from those who merely pass for poets.

Bibliography

  • Mustafa Özkat, Kara Fazlî'nin Hayatı, Eserleri, Edebî Kişiliği ve Dîvânı (İnceleme-Tenkitli Metin), MA thesis, Marmara University Institute of Turkic Studies, Istanbul 2005, pp. 364-365, ghazal no. 134 (Süleymaniye Library, Âşir Efendi 314, fol. 111b); also pp. 41 and 63 (on poetry and poets), p. 69 (redifs) and pp. 118-119 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources